Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/363

 CH. III.] on this subject, we kept steadily in our view that, which appeared to us the greatest interest of every true American, the consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence." Could this he attained consistently with the notion of an existing treaty or confederacy, which each at its pleasure was at liberty to dissolve?

§ 356. It is also historically known, that one of the objections taken by the opponents of the constitution was, " that it is not a confederation of the states, but a government of individuals." It was, nevertheless, in the solemn instruments of ratification by the people of the several states, assented to, as a constitution. The language of those instruments uniformly is, "We, &,c. do assent to, and ratify the said constitution." The forms of the convention of Massachusetts and New-Hampshire are somewhat peculiar in their language. "The convention, &c. acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the goodness of the Supreme Ruler of the